Information Commoner
Summer 2012
Volume 6, Issue 7
Keeping Library Staff on Common Ground
In This Issue
Announcements
2
Department News
2
Conference Reports
8
Employee Spotlights
11
Brag Box
11
Vacation Schedules
12
What’s Our Policy?
Mike’s Message
Summer is the time for taking vacations and soaking up some sun. For those of you with a good deal of vacation time accumulated, please don’t wait until December and have weeks of vacation to burn at the end of the year. (Can this really be true?)
Summer is also time for taking care of those projects postponed during the busy semesters. As our biorhythms crank down, be careful not to reach the end of summer wondering where the time went.
Summer is the time for space adjustments. The Innovation Center is moving their lab into LI 213 while retaining the two group study rooms on the first floor as office space. Media is shifting the music CD and music score collections to the opposite side in to allow for expansion on the south side.
Summer is the time for closing out the old budget and starting a new one. In general, we do not purchase items in June as we hope get a clearer idea of how much we can pre-pay Ebsco to clear out our accounts.
Unattended Children
By Lesli Baker
It’s that time of year when we occasionally see parents leaving their children alone in the Library while attending class. As part of our Patron Conduct Guidelines, we state that children must be accompanied by an adult at all times. The University Police Department asks that we contact them to assess the situation when we see an unattended child in the building. 2 INFORMATION COMMONER
Announcements
Summer Hours and Closures
The Library will be closed on the following holidays:
Memorial Day May 28
Independence Day July 4
Pioneer Day July 24
We will also be on shortened hours during the semester break, from August 11-25. Please check the calendar for details: www.uvu.edu/library/about/hours.html. .
By Judy Robertson
Circulation is surviving all the health absences, vacant positions, and vacations this past year. I personally would like to thank my co-workers for always stepping up to the task of filling the vacant time slots, working several shifts, and sometimes multiple evenings to keep the problems behind the scenes at a minimum. Thanks to those who have stepped out of their areas to cover the Circulation Desk. I appreciate everyone and think you are fantastic!
Thank you for all the nice thoughts, well wishes, and prayers on Garth’s (Toby’s) behalf. It has been a difficult time, but he is progressing. His kidney is functioning well, his pneumonia is gone, and we are working on his blood pressure. We are taking a vacation near the end of May to southeast Utah. Hopefully, the legend of Kokopelli is true and he will bless us with replenishment and health…maybe skip the fertility and mischief part.
EDITORIAL INFORMATION
The Information Commoner is an internal communication tool published once a month by and for the Utah Valley University Library staff. Input from all library staff is encouraged.
The deadline for information submittal is the third Friday of each month. Send information to Lesli via email.
News from Access Services INFORMATION COMMONER 3
By Mark Stevens
Netflix Roku Box in Pre-Rollout Testing Phase
The Emerging Technologies Committee is completing tests of a Netflix account associated with a Roku box. The Netflix account is locked to the Roku hardware, permitting immediate streaming anywhere a faculty member or patron might tap into the Internet. Due to bandwidth and login issues, the Roku boxes can’t be used to stream videos wirelessly right now; they must be plugged into a wired Internet connection. We will evaluate this flexible technology as a complement to our UVU Library video-streaming resource offerings.
Symphony OPAC My Account LDAP Status
We continue to work with the SirsiDynix LDAP specialist and the Campus IT LDAP specialists in an attempt to make the Symphony OPAC My Account authentication work with the central campus LDAP server. If we get this project across the finish line, UVU Library patrons will be able to access the OPAC My Account module with the same password they have with UVLink. We’ve solved a number of problems so far, but at least one significant challenge remains. We are starting a parallel effort to implement LDAP for our ILLiad logins as well.
UVU Library Discovery Service Selection and Implementation
Our selection committee hit the deadline to submit all the necessary documentation to the campus business office to permit vendor responses. We will choose one provider to implement a discovery service this fiscal year. In a nutshell, this discovery service delivers a “one-stop-shopping” resource that rivals Google in simplicity and greatly surpasses Google for locating relevant, reliable, and scholarly journal articles, books, and media. The contents of our library catalog will be included in the search results.
The current path forward is as follows:
 A chosen discovery service will be implemented and available for general use in June.
 We will react to summertime feedback from our staff and patrons to refine and optimize the user interface experience.
 Other adjustments (such as tweaking the library instruction presentation and library webpages) should be completed in time to address the blitz of returning students and library instruction classes of Fall 2012.
We express our appreciation to everyone that has contributed to this project to reach this point. We’d like to give a special thanks to Carly Nielson for helping us navigate the formal purchasing processes.
News from Systems
Roku boxes are much smaller than you might think. 4 INFORMATION COMMONER
News from Reference/Instruction
By Annie Smith
Recently, Google began to include page previews on their results page to give users a better idea of what they’re clicking on. If you hover to the right of any result, a pair of arrows will appear and a snapshot of the page will load in the far right of the screen.
Google is planning more changes to their search engine this summer. You may have already seen some of them in action. In order to improve the relevance of their results, Google will start including information in the sidebar for certain searches. They’re calling this their Knowledge Graph. For example, with searches for famous people or other simple searches, Google will include information from their pages on Wikipedia.
Google will also give greater emphasis to currency by giving the “date of last update” more weight in their search algorithm.
With luck, these changes will last. Google has a history of discontinuing features if they’re not used often enough. Last summer, Google got rid of their “wonder wheel”—a feature that allowed users to browse through related terms and topics in a spider graph—because of low usage.
I also have interesting information to report from attending the annual ULA Conference and the annual LOEX conference in Columbus, Ohio. The conference reports are included in this newsletter starting on page 8.
Google Page Preview of UVU’s homepage.
Google shows information about UVU directly
on the search results page. INFORMATION COMMONER 5
News from Media
By Christy Goodnight
I returned from traveling around the globe this month. I left to take part in the Semester at Sea program on board the MV Explorer as their assistant librarian. The librarian on board each voyage is always from the University of Virginia Libraries. The librarian this time was Jean Cooper, their Grants, Sponsored Programs and Instructional Services Librarian. 570 students from 45 different states and 19 different countries joined approximately 70 staff and faculty members and 58 family members, including the two year old daughter of a faculty member—our youngest sailor this semester. There were also 50 lifelong learners on board who are adult students that audit classes and provide valuable perspectives from a variety of backgrounds, many who have traveled with Semester at Sea multiple times.
Over the 105 days at sea after picking up the students in Nassau, the ship traversed the globe visiting 12 separate countries. Due to technological difficulties on board the ship, I was not able to keep in touch or upload as many pictures as I anticipated sharing. Thus, on June 8, I will do a lunchtime presentation of my travel diary from the voyage and answer any questions anyone has about Semester at Sea. Feel free to bring your lunch.
We are changing up the second floor. We've moved the CDs to the mezzanine (west of the microfilm cases, above the family study room) and the music scores are now on the north end of the second floor stacks. The media collection (DVDs, VHS, and so forth) are going to be inventoried, weeded, and shifted through the rest of the summer. Please bear with us as we move the collection bit by bit. We will eventually add a stack or two of shelving to the south end of the media collection at some point in the future as the collection grows (possibly one this summer).
Dominica, January 2012
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, May 2012 6 INFORMATION COMMONER
News from the Sutherland Archives
By Catherine McIntyre
From April 9-20, we hosted an exhibit for Deaf Studies about the history and development of assistive devices including very early models of TTYs, alerting devices such as flashing alarm clocks, closed-caption decoders for televisions, and much more. The exhibit was in conjunction with the fifth biennial national Deaf Studies Today! Conference, hosted at UVU. Brent estimated that over 300 people visited the display in the Archives.
On Friday, June 8, at 7:00-8:30 PM, the Archives will be hosting the presentation “Tabernacle Memories and Meanings: South Central Utah” in the Library Lecture Hall. This presentation is part of an ongoing oral history project,
Continued on next page.
By Sarah Rice
Serials wishes everyone a happy summer semester!
Orange and Green Stickers
Just a reminder, when shelving periodicals, look at each issue carefully. If there is an orange fluorescent circle on the call number tab, then that issue should be shelved on the compact shelves in a box. The same applies to any call number tab with a fluorescent green sticker: it should be shelved in the bound periodical collection. If the issue has just a call number tab with no colored stickers, it should be shelved in the current periodical collection. The most current issue should be placed inside the clear plastic cover. You will need to check the date to see if the issue you are shelving is more current than the one in the cover and if not, it should be placed inside the shelf. By lifting up the display shelf you will see a stack of the older issues.
Items for Repair
Please send any and all mutilated or damaged items to Serials for repair, especially periodical issues. Due to binding requirements, we must repair those using specific methods. Be sure to bring mending items to Sarah or Wendy to be properly checked out so that the record reflects that they are being mended, otherwise no one will be able to locate them!
Staff Leave
I will be on leave in May and will return mid-June. Mail delivery and pick up, material check in, mending and periodical routing to faculty and staff will be temporarily taken care of by Wendy. If you have any questions, please contact Wendy at x8318.
News from Serials Continued from previous page.
conducted by Drs. Simon Fass and Ron Smith of the University of Texas-Dallas, to document the deep significance that individuals attach to the Mormon tabernacles in their towns. Members of the LDS Church, of course, often have a spiritual bond with the tabernacles, but these historic buildings are loved by others because of their architectural beauty, history, and role as a gathering place for all residents, regardless of religion, to attend concerts, plays, graduation ceremonies, patriotic programs, and other cultural events.
The tabernacles covered in this portion of the project were in Provo, Vernal, Manti, Spring City, Heber City, and American Fork. The researchers had already completed project interviews in southern Utah, and will concentrate on northern Utah next. They plan to eventually incorporate the interviews and photographs into a book they will publish.
We are grant partners with Drs. Fass and Smith. I, along with Archives volunteer Kellie Johnson, transcribed and proofread the interviews. Brent has been tracking down historic and modern photos of the tabernacles and has created a beautiful publicity poster.
The presentation will be open to the public, and I hope that you’ll consider attending. Many of the interviewees will be here, and it promises to be an engaging examination of the many ways in which these beautiful historic buildings have enriched the lives of those who have lived near them.
For Summer University on May 15, Aimee, Mike, and I presented a session on UVU’s history and its many changes, and talked about what the Archives does and the materials we want to preserve, and how attendees can contribute. Aimee presented the basics of how to preserve documents and photographs that people have at home, and what resources are available to help. Brent, just back from vacation, contributed great information about how to best try to preserve digital materials, and Mike kept things lively by asking UVU history trivia questions. Barbara Hammond, coordinator for the new UVU history book, asked attendees to keep in mind how they or someone they know could contribute to that project. We gave out treats and had a drawing for two really nice Home Preservation Kits that Aimee had assembled. Attendance was good, and overall, everyone learned something. We made new contacts, and we all had a good time.
INFORMATION COMMONER 7
8 INFORMATION COMMONER
Conference Report: ULA Annual Conference 2012
By Annie Smith
Keynote
Molly Raphael, current president of the American Library Association, delivered the keynote address on Thursday, April 26. She covered current trends in the library world such as declining funds in a time of increased library use and battles with publishers over ebooks. In the question and answer session that followed, Ms. Raphael reported on the ALA’s efforts to enlighten publishers and authors about ebooks from a library perspective. In discussing publisher restrictions on ebooks, Ms. Raphael mentioned that some libraries “were okay” with HarperCollins restrictions to 26 check outs per book before the library had to re-purchase it. Ms. Raphael thought it wasn’t worth it to draw the proverbial line in the sand over the 26 check out restriction, but to my way of thinking, libraries shouldn’t knuckle under to things like this. It sets a bad precedent.
Publish or Perish: Honest Perspectives from Naïve Librarians
Erin Davis, Kacy Lundstrom, and Pamela Martin from Utah State University Library presented on their experiences in researching, writing, and publishing an article for a peer-reviewed publication. I wish I had been able to see this presentation a year ago when Lesli and I were writing and getting our own article published. They had some very useful advice about not only how to organize the research and work with co-authors, but also how to persevere in the face of publisher rejection. In fact, a lot of their advice came down to that one verb: persevere.
The Medium Defines the Message
Claire Hamasu and John Bramble, librarians from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, shared some best practices for creating a coherent social media program. They had some very interesting advice about which tones to adopt for different types of social media. One of the most useful parts of the presentation was when Hamasu and Bramble divided the audience into groups and had us create our own social media communication plans. A lot of very interesting ideas about specific content to post came out of it.
From The Lost Cyclist to The Lost City of Z: Running a Nonfiction Book Club
Presented by Dan Berube of the Whitmore Public Library and Suzanne Johnson of the Millcreek Public Library, this program offered advice and book recommendations for starting a nonfiction book club. I get the impression that the presenters were mostly expecting public librarians in their audience, because they glossed over a lot of information that would have been useful in the development and advertising phases of getting a book club up and running. The bulk of their presentation actually consisted of book recommendations. I would have liked to see more information about how to lead discussions and get patrons involved in book clubs, etc. Conference Report: LOEX 2012
By Annie Smith
Keynote Speaker: Char Booth
Char Booth, a librarian at the Claremont Colleges in California, gave the opening keynote address. Her presentation shared her library’s innovative approaches to serving the seven colleges that make up Claremont. She stressed the importance of not only advocating for your libraries, but of redefining them in our users’ minds. Many people have a firm mental image of libraries as “those places where they keep books.” We know that libraries are much more than that, and it’s up to us to get the word out.
Socializing with the Undead: Humans vs. Zombies and Learning in the Library—Jessica Olin, Hiram College
Olin was the first to admit that her plan to introduce Humans vs. Zombies (http://humansvszombies.org/) to her library was intended as a purely promotional event to get people through the doors of the library. But several rules of the game turned the promotional event into an impromptu library orientation. To keep gameplay interesting, the moderators would announce that bonuses were available in certain locations in the library or that other locations had been contaminated with the zombie virus. These announcements encouraged students to learn their way around the library.
Create Your Own Cephalonian Adventure—Amanda Izenstark and Mary MacDonald, University of Rhode Island
The Cephalonian Method involves distributing questions among the audience and then calling on the audience to ask questions. This creates a non-linear presentation of information, but it serves to liven up the atmosphere. The research on this method also shows that seeding the audience with questions encourages others to come up with their own questions.
Creating Insanely Great Instruction Sessions: What Librarians Can Learn from Steve Jobs—Matthew Olsen, Southeast Missouri State University
Olsen shared five techniques that we can steal from Steve Jobs’ presentation style to improve our speaking abilities. They boil down to:
 Focus on the User: Use the second person pronoun (you) to put the emphasis on the listener. Present the information in terms of how your audience will actually use their library research skills.
 Tell Stories: Stories are a powerful method of communicating important background information or explanations.
 Learn to Say No: We need to focus on the essentials, what students really need to know, rather than trying to explain everything in a 50 minute class session.
 Have a Message: Messages are short, concise sentences or slogans that stick in listeners’ minds after they forget everything else.
Continued on next page.
INFORMATION COMMONER 9
Continued from previous page.
 Be Passionate: If we don’t care about the information, our audiences won’t care either. We need to show enthusiasm to inspire enthusiasm in others.
iPod Apps, Mobile Learning, Game Dynamics: This Ain’t Your Typical Library Orientation—Anne Burke and Adrienne Lai, North Carolina State University
Instead of going low tech as we have done here at UVU, Burke and Lai went high tech and sent their students on scavenger hunts through the library with camera-enabled iPod Touches. Students were divided into teams, given a series of tasks or things to find and an iPod Touch. They would post their results to the free Evernote app on the iPods and have them scored by a librarian and an assistant. This scavenger hunt has been so successful that Burke and Lai were awarded the ACRL CLS ProQuest Award for Innovation in College Librarianship.
Second Keynote Speaker: Brian Stone
Brian Stone teaches design at Ohio State University. He shared his thoughts on creating an ideal learning environment, one in which students are encouraged toward inquiry, creativity, and collaboration.
Set the Stage: How to Use Performance Theory to Create Effective Self-Introductions and Positive Learning Environments—Joshua Vossler (Coastal Carolina University) and John Watts (Webster University)
This highly entertaining session was based around the importance of creating memorable, humanizing self-introductions during instruction sessions. The presenters made the observation that we tend to skip over this in order to get to the gist of our instruction sessions. But by taking the time to share with students and let them get to know you, students are more likely to approach you later on when they need more in-depth help or a refresher about the basics. They also noted that taking the time to really introduce yourself can help get rid of some of the apathy we encounter when we teach.
I Want to Eat Your Brains: Engaging Students with Brain-Based Teaching Strategies—Jennifer Quinlan, St. Cloud State University
This session was particularly useful for me, as it dealt primarily with teaching for-credit library research classes. After a short overview of brain-based teaching (use multiple media, be novel, create positive learning environments, encourage reflection and metacognition, etc.), Quinlan shared some of the assignments she uses to engage students in library research. I don’t know if I’ll be able to incorporate them into my class this semester. But in the future, I want to try and have students do things like creating commercials for subject-specific databases and promotional materials for the library.
10 INFORMATION COMMONER
Employee Spotlight: Kim Rollins
Background: I am originally from Idaho (and am proud to be an “Idaho Spud”), but now live in Pleasant Grove with my husband, Craig (partner at LJ Cooper Capital Management). My daughter, Madison, is 11 just got accepted for Honors Math in junior high—yay! My son, Conor, is 20 and is currently a UVU student. I also have a spoiled French Bulldog named Princess Phoebe Mae Guadalupe (Phoebe).
Favorite things about job/UVU: Hands down my favorite thing about working at the UVU Library is interacting with the staff, faculty, and students. Al Gore hadn’t invented the Internet yet when I got out of grad school in 1992, so I have enjoyed keeping up with the rapid, constant changes in the information profession.
Education: I have an MLIS and a bachelor’s degree in communications and public relations from BYU.
Favorite Things to Do in My Spare Time: Yoga, Pilates, travelling, and volunteering at my daughter’s school.
More About Me: I am thrilled for the opportunity to be back at the UVU Library part-time. I worked in the Library as the Public Services Librarian and Assistant Director from 1991-2007, then went home to spend more time with my family. I have taught CLSS 1050 online since 2009. I am also currently the Public Affairs Coordinator for the Utah Academic Library Consortium, which I have enjoyed doing since 2009.
BRAG BOX
Congratulations, Sarah!
Sarah had her baby three weeks early. She will be working part-time this summer after taking maternity leave. Right now, she plans to work 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM when she returns.
John Cotton Dana Award
The American Library Association has awarded our Library the prestigious John Cotton Dana Award for Public Relations for our orientation games, Get a Clue and LibraryCraft. The award comes with a $10,000 prize for the Library, to be presented at the ALA Conference in June.
INFORMATION COMMONER 11
Alan Stephens May 24—25
June 30—July 8
Annie Smith May 29—June 1
August 15—22
Ben Wilson June 6—9
Carlos Alarco June 4—6, 11—18
Carly Nielson August 6—10
September 4—7
Chelsie Young July 16—21
Christy Goodnight June 21—26
Debbie Short June 21—26
J O’Day June 18—22
Jacques d’Emal May 29—June 1
Jennie Allred June 18—July 4
Continued on next page.
Employee Spotlight: Jessie Christensen
Background: I grew up in southern California, but I’ve lived in Utah since coming here for school. I live in Orem with my three kids: Sophie (8), Timothy (6), and Phoebe (2).
Education: I went to BYU and earned bachelors degrees in Spanish translation and English, as well as a Master’s degree in Spanish literature.
Favorite things about job/UVU: I taught English 1010 for two years and I love the diversity of the student body here at UVU. I’m excited to work here because I love working with both books and people.
Favorite Things to Do in My Spare Time: I love reading and I think I’m a bit of a book addict. I also really love cooking, particularly baking. One of my new favorite hobbies is canning my own jam and other foods. When the weather is warm, I like riding my bike to the swimming pool and spending the afternoon there with my kids.
More About Me: When I was an undergraduate at BYU, I was on the university’s Quiz Bowl team, and last year I was on the TV show Jeopardy! My TV experience was a lot of fun, even though I came in third because I don’t know anything about 1970s pop music.
Summer Vacation and Conference Schedules
12 INFORMATION COMMONER
INFORMATION COMMONER 13
Judy Robertson May 21—29
June 22
July 9—13
Lasca Wood July 19—25
August 30—September 5
Lesli Baker June 22—25
Kim Rollins June 22—25
July 2—6
Mark Stevens July 2—5
Mike Freeman June 22—July 4
July 23—27
Tim June 11—15
June 22—25
Tony Jaskowick August 10—13

Click tabs to swap between content that is broken into logical sections.

Information Commoner
Summer 2012
Volume 6, Issue 7
Keeping Library Staff on Common Ground
In This Issue
Announcements
2
Department News
2
Conference Reports
8
Employee Spotlights
11
Brag Box
11
Vacation Schedules
12
What’s Our Policy?
Mike’s Message
Summer is the time for taking vacations and soaking up some sun. For those of you with a good deal of vacation time accumulated, please don’t wait until December and have weeks of vacation to burn at the end of the year. (Can this really be true?)
Summer is also time for taking care of those projects postponed during the busy semesters. As our biorhythms crank down, be careful not to reach the end of summer wondering where the time went.
Summer is the time for space adjustments. The Innovation Center is moving their lab into LI 213 while retaining the two group study rooms on the first floor as office space. Media is shifting the music CD and music score collections to the opposite side in to allow for expansion on the south side.
Summer is the time for closing out the old budget and starting a new one. In general, we do not purchase items in June as we hope get a clearer idea of how much we can pre-pay Ebsco to clear out our accounts.
Unattended Children
By Lesli Baker
It’s that time of year when we occasionally see parents leaving their children alone in the Library while attending class. As part of our Patron Conduct Guidelines, we state that children must be accompanied by an adult at all times. The University Police Department asks that we contact them to assess the situation when we see an unattended child in the building. 2 INFORMATION COMMONER
Announcements
Summer Hours and Closures
The Library will be closed on the following holidays:
Memorial Day May 28
Independence Day July 4
Pioneer Day July 24
We will also be on shortened hours during the semester break, from August 11-25. Please check the calendar for details: www.uvu.edu/library/about/hours.html. .
By Judy Robertson
Circulation is surviving all the health absences, vacant positions, and vacations this past year. I personally would like to thank my co-workers for always stepping up to the task of filling the vacant time slots, working several shifts, and sometimes multiple evenings to keep the problems behind the scenes at a minimum. Thanks to those who have stepped out of their areas to cover the Circulation Desk. I appreciate everyone and think you are fantastic!
Thank you for all the nice thoughts, well wishes, and prayers on Garth’s (Toby’s) behalf. It has been a difficult time, but he is progressing. His kidney is functioning well, his pneumonia is gone, and we are working on his blood pressure. We are taking a vacation near the end of May to southeast Utah. Hopefully, the legend of Kokopelli is true and he will bless us with replenishment and health…maybe skip the fertility and mischief part.
EDITORIAL INFORMATION
The Information Commoner is an internal communication tool published once a month by and for the Utah Valley University Library staff. Input from all library staff is encouraged.
The deadline for information submittal is the third Friday of each month. Send information to Lesli via email.
News from Access Services INFORMATION COMMONER 3
By Mark Stevens
Netflix Roku Box in Pre-Rollout Testing Phase
The Emerging Technologies Committee is completing tests of a Netflix account associated with a Roku box. The Netflix account is locked to the Roku hardware, permitting immediate streaming anywhere a faculty member or patron might tap into the Internet. Due to bandwidth and login issues, the Roku boxes can’t be used to stream videos wirelessly right now; they must be plugged into a wired Internet connection. We will evaluate this flexible technology as a complement to our UVU Library video-streaming resource offerings.
Symphony OPAC My Account LDAP Status
We continue to work with the SirsiDynix LDAP specialist and the Campus IT LDAP specialists in an attempt to make the Symphony OPAC My Account authentication work with the central campus LDAP server. If we get this project across the finish line, UVU Library patrons will be able to access the OPAC My Account module with the same password they have with UVLink. We’ve solved a number of problems so far, but at least one significant challenge remains. We are starting a parallel effort to implement LDAP for our ILLiad logins as well.
UVU Library Discovery Service Selection and Implementation
Our selection committee hit the deadline to submit all the necessary documentation to the campus business office to permit vendor responses. We will choose one provider to implement a discovery service this fiscal year. In a nutshell, this discovery service delivers a “one-stop-shopping” resource that rivals Google in simplicity and greatly surpasses Google for locating relevant, reliable, and scholarly journal articles, books, and media. The contents of our library catalog will be included in the search results.
The current path forward is as follows:
 A chosen discovery service will be implemented and available for general use in June.
 We will react to summertime feedback from our staff and patrons to refine and optimize the user interface experience.
 Other adjustments (such as tweaking the library instruction presentation and library webpages) should be completed in time to address the blitz of returning students and library instruction classes of Fall 2012.
We express our appreciation to everyone that has contributed to this project to reach this point. We’d like to give a special thanks to Carly Nielson for helping us navigate the formal purchasing processes.
News from Systems
Roku boxes are much smaller than you might think. 4 INFORMATION COMMONER
News from Reference/Instruction
By Annie Smith
Recently, Google began to include page previews on their results page to give users a better idea of what they’re clicking on. If you hover to the right of any result, a pair of arrows will appear and a snapshot of the page will load in the far right of the screen.
Google is planning more changes to their search engine this summer. You may have already seen some of them in action. In order to improve the relevance of their results, Google will start including information in the sidebar for certain searches. They’re calling this their Knowledge Graph. For example, with searches for famous people or other simple searches, Google will include information from their pages on Wikipedia.
Google will also give greater emphasis to currency by giving the “date of last update” more weight in their search algorithm.
With luck, these changes will last. Google has a history of discontinuing features if they’re not used often enough. Last summer, Google got rid of their “wonder wheel”—a feature that allowed users to browse through related terms and topics in a spider graph—because of low usage.
I also have interesting information to report from attending the annual ULA Conference and the annual LOEX conference in Columbus, Ohio. The conference reports are included in this newsletter starting on page 8.
Google Page Preview of UVU’s homepage.
Google shows information about UVU directly
on the search results page. INFORMATION COMMONER 5
News from Media
By Christy Goodnight
I returned from traveling around the globe this month. I left to take part in the Semester at Sea program on board the MV Explorer as their assistant librarian. The librarian on board each voyage is always from the University of Virginia Libraries. The librarian this time was Jean Cooper, their Grants, Sponsored Programs and Instructional Services Librarian. 570 students from 45 different states and 19 different countries joined approximately 70 staff and faculty members and 58 family members, including the two year old daughter of a faculty member—our youngest sailor this semester. There were also 50 lifelong learners on board who are adult students that audit classes and provide valuable perspectives from a variety of backgrounds, many who have traveled with Semester at Sea multiple times.
Over the 105 days at sea after picking up the students in Nassau, the ship traversed the globe visiting 12 separate countries. Due to technological difficulties on board the ship, I was not able to keep in touch or upload as many pictures as I anticipated sharing. Thus, on June 8, I will do a lunchtime presentation of my travel diary from the voyage and answer any questions anyone has about Semester at Sea. Feel free to bring your lunch.
We are changing up the second floor. We've moved the CDs to the mezzanine (west of the microfilm cases, above the family study room) and the music scores are now on the north end of the second floor stacks. The media collection (DVDs, VHS, and so forth) are going to be inventoried, weeded, and shifted through the rest of the summer. Please bear with us as we move the collection bit by bit. We will eventually add a stack or two of shelving to the south end of the media collection at some point in the future as the collection grows (possibly one this summer).
Dominica, January 2012
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, May 2012 6 INFORMATION COMMONER
News from the Sutherland Archives
By Catherine McIntyre
From April 9-20, we hosted an exhibit for Deaf Studies about the history and development of assistive devices including very early models of TTYs, alerting devices such as flashing alarm clocks, closed-caption decoders for televisions, and much more. The exhibit was in conjunction with the fifth biennial national Deaf Studies Today! Conference, hosted at UVU. Brent estimated that over 300 people visited the display in the Archives.
On Friday, June 8, at 7:00-8:30 PM, the Archives will be hosting the presentation “Tabernacle Memories and Meanings: South Central Utah” in the Library Lecture Hall. This presentation is part of an ongoing oral history project,
Continued on next page.
By Sarah Rice
Serials wishes everyone a happy summer semester!
Orange and Green Stickers
Just a reminder, when shelving periodicals, look at each issue carefully. If there is an orange fluorescent circle on the call number tab, then that issue should be shelved on the compact shelves in a box. The same applies to any call number tab with a fluorescent green sticker: it should be shelved in the bound periodical collection. If the issue has just a call number tab with no colored stickers, it should be shelved in the current periodical collection. The most current issue should be placed inside the clear plastic cover. You will need to check the date to see if the issue you are shelving is more current than the one in the cover and if not, it should be placed inside the shelf. By lifting up the display shelf you will see a stack of the older issues.
Items for Repair
Please send any and all mutilated or damaged items to Serials for repair, especially periodical issues. Due to binding requirements, we must repair those using specific methods. Be sure to bring mending items to Sarah or Wendy to be properly checked out so that the record reflects that they are being mended, otherwise no one will be able to locate them!
Staff Leave
I will be on leave in May and will return mid-June. Mail delivery and pick up, material check in, mending and periodical routing to faculty and staff will be temporarily taken care of by Wendy. If you have any questions, please contact Wendy at x8318.
News from Serials Continued from previous page.
conducted by Drs. Simon Fass and Ron Smith of the University of Texas-Dallas, to document the deep significance that individuals attach to the Mormon tabernacles in their towns. Members of the LDS Church, of course, often have a spiritual bond with the tabernacles, but these historic buildings are loved by others because of their architectural beauty, history, and role as a gathering place for all residents, regardless of religion, to attend concerts, plays, graduation ceremonies, patriotic programs, and other cultural events.
The tabernacles covered in this portion of the project were in Provo, Vernal, Manti, Spring City, Heber City, and American Fork. The researchers had already completed project interviews in southern Utah, and will concentrate on northern Utah next. They plan to eventually incorporate the interviews and photographs into a book they will publish.
We are grant partners with Drs. Fass and Smith. I, along with Archives volunteer Kellie Johnson, transcribed and proofread the interviews. Brent has been tracking down historic and modern photos of the tabernacles and has created a beautiful publicity poster.
The presentation will be open to the public, and I hope that you’ll consider attending. Many of the interviewees will be here, and it promises to be an engaging examination of the many ways in which these beautiful historic buildings have enriched the lives of those who have lived near them.
For Summer University on May 15, Aimee, Mike, and I presented a session on UVU’s history and its many changes, and talked about what the Archives does and the materials we want to preserve, and how attendees can contribute. Aimee presented the basics of how to preserve documents and photographs that people have at home, and what resources are available to help. Brent, just back from vacation, contributed great information about how to best try to preserve digital materials, and Mike kept things lively by asking UVU history trivia questions. Barbara Hammond, coordinator for the new UVU history book, asked attendees to keep in mind how they or someone they know could contribute to that project. We gave out treats and had a drawing for two really nice Home Preservation Kits that Aimee had assembled. Attendance was good, and overall, everyone learned something. We made new contacts, and we all had a good time.
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Conference Report: ULA Annual Conference 2012
By Annie Smith
Keynote
Molly Raphael, current president of the American Library Association, delivered the keynote address on Thursday, April 26. She covered current trends in the library world such as declining funds in a time of increased library use and battles with publishers over ebooks. In the question and answer session that followed, Ms. Raphael reported on the ALA’s efforts to enlighten publishers and authors about ebooks from a library perspective. In discussing publisher restrictions on ebooks, Ms. Raphael mentioned that some libraries “were okay” with HarperCollins restrictions to 26 check outs per book before the library had to re-purchase it. Ms. Raphael thought it wasn’t worth it to draw the proverbial line in the sand over the 26 check out restriction, but to my way of thinking, libraries shouldn’t knuckle under to things like this. It sets a bad precedent.
Publish or Perish: Honest Perspectives from Naïve Librarians
Erin Davis, Kacy Lundstrom, and Pamela Martin from Utah State University Library presented on their experiences in researching, writing, and publishing an article for a peer-reviewed publication. I wish I had been able to see this presentation a year ago when Lesli and I were writing and getting our own article published. They had some very useful advice about not only how to organize the research and work with co-authors, but also how to persevere in the face of publisher rejection. In fact, a lot of their advice came down to that one verb: persevere.
The Medium Defines the Message
Claire Hamasu and John Bramble, librarians from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, shared some best practices for creating a coherent social media program. They had some very interesting advice about which tones to adopt for different types of social media. One of the most useful parts of the presentation was when Hamasu and Bramble divided the audience into groups and had us create our own social media communication plans. A lot of very interesting ideas about specific content to post came out of it.
From The Lost Cyclist to The Lost City of Z: Running a Nonfiction Book Club
Presented by Dan Berube of the Whitmore Public Library and Suzanne Johnson of the Millcreek Public Library, this program offered advice and book recommendations for starting a nonfiction book club. I get the impression that the presenters were mostly expecting public librarians in their audience, because they glossed over a lot of information that would have been useful in the development and advertising phases of getting a book club up and running. The bulk of their presentation actually consisted of book recommendations. I would have liked to see more information about how to lead discussions and get patrons involved in book clubs, etc. Conference Report: LOEX 2012
By Annie Smith
Keynote Speaker: Char Booth
Char Booth, a librarian at the Claremont Colleges in California, gave the opening keynote address. Her presentation shared her library’s innovative approaches to serving the seven colleges that make up Claremont. She stressed the importance of not only advocating for your libraries, but of redefining them in our users’ minds. Many people have a firm mental image of libraries as “those places where they keep books.” We know that libraries are much more than that, and it’s up to us to get the word out.
Socializing with the Undead: Humans vs. Zombies and Learning in the Library—Jessica Olin, Hiram College
Olin was the first to admit that her plan to introduce Humans vs. Zombies (http://humansvszombies.org/) to her library was intended as a purely promotional event to get people through the doors of the library. But several rules of the game turned the promotional event into an impromptu library orientation. To keep gameplay interesting, the moderators would announce that bonuses were available in certain locations in the library or that other locations had been contaminated with the zombie virus. These announcements encouraged students to learn their way around the library.
Create Your Own Cephalonian Adventure—Amanda Izenstark and Mary MacDonald, University of Rhode Island
The Cephalonian Method involves distributing questions among the audience and then calling on the audience to ask questions. This creates a non-linear presentation of information, but it serves to liven up the atmosphere. The research on this method also shows that seeding the audience with questions encourages others to come up with their own questions.
Creating Insanely Great Instruction Sessions: What Librarians Can Learn from Steve Jobs—Matthew Olsen, Southeast Missouri State University
Olsen shared five techniques that we can steal from Steve Jobs’ presentation style to improve our speaking abilities. They boil down to:
 Focus on the User: Use the second person pronoun (you) to put the emphasis on the listener. Present the information in terms of how your audience will actually use their library research skills.
 Tell Stories: Stories are a powerful method of communicating important background information or explanations.
 Learn to Say No: We need to focus on the essentials, what students really need to know, rather than trying to explain everything in a 50 minute class session.
 Have a Message: Messages are short, concise sentences or slogans that stick in listeners’ minds after they forget everything else.
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INFORMATION COMMONER 9
Continued from previous page.
 Be Passionate: If we don’t care about the information, our audiences won’t care either. We need to show enthusiasm to inspire enthusiasm in others.
iPod Apps, Mobile Learning, Game Dynamics: This Ain’t Your Typical Library Orientation—Anne Burke and Adrienne Lai, North Carolina State University
Instead of going low tech as we have done here at UVU, Burke and Lai went high tech and sent their students on scavenger hunts through the library with camera-enabled iPod Touches. Students were divided into teams, given a series of tasks or things to find and an iPod Touch. They would post their results to the free Evernote app on the iPods and have them scored by a librarian and an assistant. This scavenger hunt has been so successful that Burke and Lai were awarded the ACRL CLS ProQuest Award for Innovation in College Librarianship.
Second Keynote Speaker: Brian Stone
Brian Stone teaches design at Ohio State University. He shared his thoughts on creating an ideal learning environment, one in which students are encouraged toward inquiry, creativity, and collaboration.
Set the Stage: How to Use Performance Theory to Create Effective Self-Introductions and Positive Learning Environments—Joshua Vossler (Coastal Carolina University) and John Watts (Webster University)
This highly entertaining session was based around the importance of creating memorable, humanizing self-introductions during instruction sessions. The presenters made the observation that we tend to skip over this in order to get to the gist of our instruction sessions. But by taking the time to share with students and let them get to know you, students are more likely to approach you later on when they need more in-depth help or a refresher about the basics. They also noted that taking the time to really introduce yourself can help get rid of some of the apathy we encounter when we teach.
I Want to Eat Your Brains: Engaging Students with Brain-Based Teaching Strategies—Jennifer Quinlan, St. Cloud State University
This session was particularly useful for me, as it dealt primarily with teaching for-credit library research classes. After a short overview of brain-based teaching (use multiple media, be novel, create positive learning environments, encourage reflection and metacognition, etc.), Quinlan shared some of the assignments she uses to engage students in library research. I don’t know if I’ll be able to incorporate them into my class this semester. But in the future, I want to try and have students do things like creating commercials for subject-specific databases and promotional materials for the library.
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Employee Spotlight: Kim Rollins
Background: I am originally from Idaho (and am proud to be an “Idaho Spud”), but now live in Pleasant Grove with my husband, Craig (partner at LJ Cooper Capital Management). My daughter, Madison, is 11 just got accepted for Honors Math in junior high—yay! My son, Conor, is 20 and is currently a UVU student. I also have a spoiled French Bulldog named Princess Phoebe Mae Guadalupe (Phoebe).
Favorite things about job/UVU: Hands down my favorite thing about working at the UVU Library is interacting with the staff, faculty, and students. Al Gore hadn’t invented the Internet yet when I got out of grad school in 1992, so I have enjoyed keeping up with the rapid, constant changes in the information profession.
Education: I have an MLIS and a bachelor’s degree in communications and public relations from BYU.
Favorite Things to Do in My Spare Time: Yoga, Pilates, travelling, and volunteering at my daughter’s school.
More About Me: I am thrilled for the opportunity to be back at the UVU Library part-time. I worked in the Library as the Public Services Librarian and Assistant Director from 1991-2007, then went home to spend more time with my family. I have taught CLSS 1050 online since 2009. I am also currently the Public Affairs Coordinator for the Utah Academic Library Consortium, which I have enjoyed doing since 2009.
BRAG BOX
Congratulations, Sarah!
Sarah had her baby three weeks early. She will be working part-time this summer after taking maternity leave. Right now, she plans to work 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM when she returns.
John Cotton Dana Award
The American Library Association has awarded our Library the prestigious John Cotton Dana Award for Public Relations for our orientation games, Get a Clue and LibraryCraft. The award comes with a $10,000 prize for the Library, to be presented at the ALA Conference in June.
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Alan Stephens May 24—25
June 30—July 8
Annie Smith May 29—June 1
August 15—22
Ben Wilson June 6—9
Carlos Alarco June 4—6, 11—18
Carly Nielson August 6—10
September 4—7
Chelsie Young July 16—21
Christy Goodnight June 21—26
Debbie Short June 21—26
J O’Day June 18—22
Jacques d’Emal May 29—June 1
Jennie Allred June 18—July 4
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Employee Spotlight: Jessie Christensen
Background: I grew up in southern California, but I’ve lived in Utah since coming here for school. I live in Orem with my three kids: Sophie (8), Timothy (6), and Phoebe (2).
Education: I went to BYU and earned bachelors degrees in Spanish translation and English, as well as a Master’s degree in Spanish literature.
Favorite things about job/UVU: I taught English 1010 for two years and I love the diversity of the student body here at UVU. I’m excited to work here because I love working with both books and people.
Favorite Things to Do in My Spare Time: I love reading and I think I’m a bit of a book addict. I also really love cooking, particularly baking. One of my new favorite hobbies is canning my own jam and other foods. When the weather is warm, I like riding my bike to the swimming pool and spending the afternoon there with my kids.
More About Me: When I was an undergraduate at BYU, I was on the university’s Quiz Bowl team, and last year I was on the TV show Jeopardy! My TV experience was a lot of fun, even though I came in third because I don’t know anything about 1970s pop music.
Summer Vacation and Conference Schedules
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Judy Robertson May 21—29
June 22
July 9—13
Lasca Wood July 19—25
August 30—September 5
Lesli Baker June 22—25
Kim Rollins June 22—25
July 2—6
Mark Stevens July 2—5
Mike Freeman June 22—July 4
July 23—27
Tim June 11—15
June 22—25
Tony Jaskowick August 10—13